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Author Topic: 127 Hours  (Read 7346 times)

FroHam X

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #20 on: December 09, 2010, 09:46:13 PM »
I think Boyle gets a bit excessive on the camera tricks and quick edits,

A bit?

He get's just excessive enough.
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Pink

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #21 on: December 10, 2010, 04:07:21 PM »
I think Boyle gets a bit excessive on the camera tricks and quick edits,

A bit?

He get's just excessive enough.

I was also disappointed with the "tricks." I had a hard time articulating it, but Adam's argument of "Well it was intentionally like a Mountain Dew commercial" helped me clarify my thoughts.

I really liked how the film tricked out those first 20 minutes MTV-style. This guy thinks life is a Mountain Dew commercial so lets shoot it like that. Great - inspired. But then when he gets stuck in the canyon (right when that pitch-perfect title sequences show up), I wish the film would have slowed down and there's some kind of contrast in camera/editing choices to what it was before. I just never felt a sense of isolation or abandonment because of the excess. Because there's no line between how the film works before and after he gets stuck, I wasn't as connected in a cinematic sense with Aaron's journey (if that makes sense?). I still liked it, it just wasn't as grueling or transcendent as I was hoping for and I place the blame on Boyle's choices more than anything.

sdedalus

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #22 on: December 10, 2010, 04:20:51 PM »
I think it's important that he never stops thinking his life is a Mountain Dew commercial.

Also, this is how Danny Boyle makes movies.  They're all bursting with energy.
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Pink

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #23 on: December 10, 2010, 04:38:19 PM »
I think it's important that he never stops thinking his life is a Mountain Dew commercial.

Also, this is how Danny Boyle makes movies.  They're all bursting with energy.

Yeah, I see your point, that Mountain Dew commercial idealization of those memories is very key to his character. But there's no line between how they shoot and edit those memories and how they shoot and edit his reality with the boulder.

Boyle wants the visceral reaction by putting the camera in the pee coming up the straw, but it's stuff like that that really distracts and takes me out of the picture.  I get that's he's bursting with energy and that's the way he rolls, but there's a certain point where that "energy" starts making diminishing returns and becomes disengaging.

oneaprilday

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #24 on: December 12, 2010, 01:41:50 AM »
Those are really great pics, ses - how cool that you were in that area! Do you know if there is that underground pool that Ralston and the girls jump into?

Btw, a couple of questions about that scene, questions for anyone: did they jump/drop in with all their gear (camera etc.)?  ??? If not, where did they leave their stuff and why did they leave it? I assumed there must be some of the geography I wasn't getting, but I was wishing I had a better sense of the lay of the land. Also, could you just drop down into the pool like that without bumping, scraping, or generally bruising your body on the cliff walls on the way down? (I don't mean to sound as if I'm complaining - I think the scene was effective in setting up Aron's character - his energy and charisma.)

Really liked the film overall. I wondered, going into it, if I’d be a bit annoyed by the music video style and quick cuts and split screens that I’d heard about, but that aspect of the film didn’t bother me at all. It was in keeping, I think, with the kind of character that we were supposed to be seeing and did see, in Ralston. I really loved that high energy opening, Ralston getting his stuff, and driving, and sleeping, and then hitting the trail on his bike. (And I think I am generally willing to give Boyle his choices; I have a lot of good will towards him, I guess. I think I’m just taken with him as a person and with the style he is drawn to - I absolutely love listening to interviews with him -his own energy and good will towards seemingly everyone is hard to resist!)

I loved the choice to keep the story centered on Ralston - rather than trying to fit in the stories that were happening outside, viz. his co-worker(s) missing him at work, his parents, and friends slowly realizing he was missing, trying to figure out where he was, etc. That outside stuff is fascinating, but keeping it out of the film here worked perfectly.

I also thought that while Boyle could have used Ralston talking into his camera even more (because from what I’ve read, seen, heard, Ralston did talk to the camera a lot more than we see in the film), but Boyle chose not to include more of that, and so we’re not told as much of his thinking and feelings as much as we could have been. I appreciated that. We do have the flashbacks/visions, I guess, to fill in some of what he’s thinking/feeling, and I do agree, that those didn’t work for me quite as well, but what we do have that is incredibly compelling is Franco’s face - where we’re tracing his emotions and realizations without being told what they are. When we do get to the arm-breaking-cutting scene, it’s not explained to us that he’s decided to do that - he just goes for it. So much there could have been expository, I think - and I was glad that it wasn’t. We are very much of and in the moment there.

And for all of the heavy-handedness with the flashbacks, etc. and with the very end, I found the film incredibly, alternately, intense and moving - at one point, I realized my heart had been pounding hard for quite some time (and that hasn’t happened for me with a film since . . . I don’t know), and then relief at the end was so immense, that yeah, I was definitely weepy and willing to let the film be as sentimental as it pleased. The end of that morning-show scene, too, as you mention, ses - Franco is so, so good there. His face. Wow.

It’s interesting, ses, that you bring up the water - one of the friends we were with last night said almost exactly what you said (barring the bit about being a microbiologist ;) ) - that it wasn’t the arm scene that got to her but the drinking of the horrible water. (I am really curious about that, too - was there really a pool like that there? I thought that there wasn’t . . . but it was a while ago that I saw the news story/doc about Ralston - has anyone read Ralston’s book?)

The movie’s strongest point is, ultimately, Franco’s performance - but I do, also, like Boyle’s style - I think it works for this story.
And I generally favor films with complex themes and ideas - and this wasn’t one of the those films - but it is, I think, still great.

Speaking of the movie’s ideas, do the rest of you think there is a possible schizophrenia at its heart? The overt, heavy-handed idea is - “we need people, we need each other, community over the solitary individual” etc. - but the truth is, Ralston did basically get himself out of there - on his own. He conquered the rock, in a way. He did get help at the very end, and we could speculate that he would have died trying to hike out, but hasn’t the Ralston story, like a Touching the Void kind of story, really captivated people because what he did, by himself, is so incredible? Boyle talks about the film as being a testament to the human spirit - and he’s not talking about the triumph of the communal human spirit, is he? Isn’t it the triumph of the individual against the odds? A triumph of individual survival? Am I wrong in thinking that there is a kind of tension in what the film is communicating? Can it be both about its overt message of “we need people” and also about the triumph of the individual without contradicting itself? I’m not sure I find this tension (if there is one) problematic, in terms of how much I like the film, I just find it really interesting - because I kind of think Boyle wants (and maybe we all want this) to have it both ways, to have both a rugged individualism and a celebration of community.

sdedalus

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #25 on: December 12, 2010, 03:20:50 PM »
I definitely picked up that tension as well.  Spiritually, Ralston discovers that he can't do everything himself, that he needs his friends and family and this is the point of all his flashbacks.  And that lesson costs him his hand.  And conversely, his story is one of incredible individual perseverance and survival.

The tension , though, is resolved in the coda: Ralston still goes out and does crazy things, but now he always leaves a note.  Rather than contradict itself, the film advocates for balance.
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ses

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #26 on: December 15, 2010, 08:49:37 PM »
Those are really great pics, ses - how cool that you were in that area! Do you know if there is that underground pool that Ralston and the girls jump into?

Btw, a couple of questions about that scene, questions for anyone: did they jump/drop in with all their gear (camera etc.)?  ??? If not, where did they leave their stuff and why did they leave it? I assumed there must be some of the geography I wasn't getting, but I was wishing I had a better sense of the lay of the land. Also, could you just drop down into the pool like that without bumping, scraping, or generally bruising your body on the cliff walls on the way down? (I don't mean to sound as if I'm complaining - I think the scene was effective in setting up Aron's character - his energy and charisma.)


I have never heard of a pool like that being out in that area, and given the climate, I highly doubt that it exists.  It is hard to find a water source like that in the Utah desert. 

But as far as the logistics of it. It seemed like they could drop down, come out another part of the canyon and climb back up, so they could bring the camera down the other end.

Most of the rock out there is called "slickrock" It's very wind worn and smooth, not exactly slick because it is extremely dry, so your hiking boots grip really well, but it does get slippery when it gets wet.  You would scrape yourself, but probably not too bad.  On some of the hikes we went down, it was very steep, so I could climb up one side of the rock and slide down the other on my butt, it was pretty smooth.


This is what most of the water in Utah looks like, the rock is so dusty, everything is orange or brown.  The reason I have this picture, is that the pool of water is about 4 feet deep, so we had to scale around the side of it.  Thanks goodness for good hiking boots.  It is a lot steeper than it looks, I was pressed up against the side, clinging on so I wouldn't fall in the pool.
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bama_filmsnob

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #27 on: December 20, 2010, 12:55:43 PM »
Has anyone read the book 'Between a Rock and a Hard Place'?

I saw the movie first, then read the book. This is one of those rare instances IMHO that I liked the movie better (Godfather and Forrest Gump being two other examples). In the book Ralston comes off a bit arrogant and not the Mountain Dew affable guy portrayed in the film. Ralston gives way too much chest thumping details about his past climbing experiences, he puts his friends in harm's way in a few of his adventures, and his favorite band is Phish (ok I'm just kidding about that part)

Overall I'd place the film in my Top Ten Favs of the Year.
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mañana

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #28 on: January 14, 2011, 01:55:36 AM »
So am I the only person who was put off by all the dream/hallucination sequences? At the end it says "Aron's premonition came true"...something about meeting his wife.
Some of that stuff was definitely corny and obvious, but I was sobbing way too much for it to be a problem for me.
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mañana

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Re: 127 Hours
« Reply #29 on: January 14, 2011, 12:08:31 PM »
I was so hoping the guy who played J. Walter Weatherman would have a cameo.
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